The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo meets Gone Girl in this enthralling murder mystery set in Kenya.

In the shadows of Sangui City, there lives a girl who doesn't exist. After fleeing the Congo as refugees, Tina and her mother arrived in Kenya looking for the chance to build a new life and home. Her mother quickly found work as a maid for a prominent family, headed by Roland Greyhill, one of the city’s most respected business leaders. But Tina soon learns that the Greyhill fortune was made from a life of corruption and crime. So when her mother is found shot to death in Mr. Greyhill's personal study, she knows exactly who’s behind it.

With revenge always on her mind, Tina spends the next four years surviving on the streets alone, working as a master thief for the Goondas, Sangui City’s local gang. It’s a job for the Goondas that finally brings Tina back to the Greyhill estate, giving her the chance for vengeance she’s been waiting for. But as soon as she steps inside the lavish home, she’s overtaken by the pain of old wounds and the pull of past friendships, setting into motion a dangerous cascade of events that could, at any moment, cost Tina her life. But finally uncovering the incredible truth about who killed her mother—and why—keeps her holding on in this fast-paced nail-biting thriller.

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内容紹介

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo meets Gone Girl in this enthralling murder mystery set in Kenya.

In the shadows of Sangui City, there lives a girl who doesn't exist. After fleeing the Congo as refugees, Tina and her mother arrived in Kenya looking for the chance to build a new life and home. Her mother quickly found work as a maid for a prominent family, headed by Roland Greyhill, one of the city’s most respected business leaders. But Tina soon learns that the Greyhill fortune was made from a life of corruption and crime. So when her mother is found shot to death in Mr. Greyhill's personal study, she knows exactly who’s behind it.

With revenge always on her mind, Tina spends the next four years surviving on the streets alone, working as a master thief for the Goondas, Sangui City’s local gang. It’s a job for the Goondas that finally brings Tina back to the Greyhill estate, giving her the chance for vengeance she’s been waiting for. But as soon as she steps inside the lavish home, she’s overtaken by the pain of old wounds and the pull of past friendships, setting into motion a dangerous cascade of events that could, at any moment, cost Tina her life. But finally uncovering the incredible truth about who killed her mother—and why—keeps her holding on in this fast-paced nail-biting thriller.

From the Hardcover edition.

レビュー

`A twisty-turny-chock-full-of-secrets, so exciting-you-have-to-force-yourself-to-take-breaks-and-breathe kind of novel' -- New York Times Book Review 'City of Saints & Thieves will pull you from the very first page into a rarely seen world, violent and beautiful, where the only rule is survival and the only weapons are a young woman's courage and love.' -- Francisco X. Stork, award-winning author of Marcelo in the Real World "[A] wonderfully twisted puzzle of a murder mystery.' -- Booklist, starred review '[I]n this fast-paced thriller... Anderson adeptly uses language to bring Tina's world to life as she carefully traces her heroine's history to reveal a shocking truth.' -- Publishers Weekly, starred review 'A perfect cocktail of suspense, action and heart,' -- Tara Sullivan, author of Golden Boy and The Bitter Side of Sweet 'A world opener of a debut, one worth reading and remembering.' -- Ashley Hope-Perez, Printz Honour-winning author of Out of Darkness

Amazon.com で最も参考になったカスタマーレビュー

City of Saints and Thieves by Natalie C. Anderson tells the story of Tiny Girl, a refugee from Congo who knows who killed her mother and swears to get her revenge.

And that's basically it.

The protagonist must live in the streets of Kenya and join a gang to survive, there she learns what she needs in order to get back to the men who killed her mother. But in order to get at her enemy she is forced to relive her own past.

* WHAT I LIKED *

* The narrator. I enjoyed the laid-back narrator, Tiny Girl, so much. She guided me through her world as a friend showing a messy room. Her voice was informal, friendly and honest. I laughed when she made funny remarks and felt her anguish when she was in trouble.

* Sometimes things went wrong. I feel like in most thrillers or mystery books the protagonists have extremely good luck. They always fool everyone, there are never minor mishaps like in real life and people are never bothered by minor inconveniences. Am I asking for too much if I want a flat tire when they are about to escape? Maybe. But this book has its flat tire scenes and it made everything more fun.

* The setting. I don't tend to read about people living in the middle of a war, slaves, disease or people getting hurt in general. I prefer to have fun and be happy during my reading time. But I also think that reading about these subjects is a good way to be informed and be more empathetic towards certain situations. Though the city and the characters on this book are not real, the story is based on real events affecting the people in Congo and other parts of Africa.

* WHAT I DISLIKED *

* It was 50 pages too long. I really loved the beginning of this book. I liked the end. But I struggled in the middle. I had to force myself to read a bunch of boring and purposeless pages in order to get to the good parts. I feel like they could cut 50 pages from the middle of this book and people wouldn't notice. Most of the boring stuff is people talking about theories that I had already made, and people describing settings that I didn't care about, like the view, the weather or random people doing random stuff in the background.

* Not enough action and a bit slow. It has its moments of action, of course. A couple of times I caught myself holding my breath so the bad guys in the book wouldn't listen. But I think it has just two or three action scenes distributed trough the book, and the rest is slower and not so thrilling.

* A bit predictable. I think most of the clues you get through the book are a bit too obvious. It did surprise me with a big revelation, but the rest were too easy to guess and the outcome for each character was what I expected from the beginning. I still had fun, maybe this wouldn't have been an issue in a shorter book.

* YOU SHOULD READ IT IF *

* You are looking for a YA thriller with a murder mystery* You want another perspective on human rights violations in Congo* You like action movies about stealing information* You love laid-back friendly narrators

Many thanks to Penguin Random House for providing me with a free digital copy in exchange for an honest review. Review originally published on my blog PrettyGeekery.

City of Saints and Thieves takes Tina, refugee turned pickpocket, on a perilous journey of revenge and revelation. Tina's life-and-death choices are harrowingly real - and heartbreakingly relevant. A YA page-turner with a thoughtful core and moments of radiant beauty. Highly recommended.

A thoroughly engaging read! I was taken into another world that is described vibrantly. I encourage everyone, not just young adults, to get this as your next read and prepare to decide if you will like the book or the movie better. This has to be a movie! While the movie will be terrific, I can't imagine being more engaged than I was as I turned the pages of the book. Kudos!

I got hooked from the start and couldn't put this down. It's brutal enough that I wouldn't recommend it to younger than 14 or 15. Having lived in West Africa for two years this was interesting to see similarities and differences in a different region.